


Monster Hunting

by Harmonyhhr



Series: 'Keeping' it Ghostly [2]
Category: Ghost (Swedish Band)
Genre: El chupacabra - Freeform, Grocery store rags, and crazy people with guns, hiding up a tree, the desert is full of monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8659036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harmonyhhr/pseuds/Harmonyhhr
Summary: Ellie allows Earth to convince her to go hunting for supernatural creatures. Nothing bad can happen when the monster isn't real...right?*Takes place after the end of "Never a Dull Moment"





	1. The Monster of Mexico

**Author's Note:**

> I'm baaack! I know, here I am again. I started working on the sequel to "Never a Dull Moment" and realized there was too much I wanted to do to make it all fit cohesively, so "Monster Hunting" will begin a short series of one shot stories meant to build up to the next big adventure for Ellie and Ghost. These shorts will focus mainly on Ellie's relationship with Papa and the Ghouls - especially Omega.

"Okay, well what about Bat Boy? The paper says the government has him in a secret facility so they can run tests on him."

I sighed resignedly into the phone. “Sorry Earth, I heard he was fronting a metal band now. Might wanna use your connections to see if you can find him.”

He practically squealed my ear off through the connection. “Really? Which bands do you think he’d like to be in? I bet…”

As Earth rambled on, I sort of tuned him out. Intelligent and sweet he might be, but for some reason he had gone and gotten himself obsessed with grocery store tabloids. Now every so often he liked to call and see if The Keepers had any information on a random creature of the week. Last call it was La Llorona.

“You know,” I cut him off mid-stream, “you might want to pick stuff closer to Arizona. I try to keep up with daily reports from other offices, but usually I’m only asked about creatures we deal with frequently.”

Unsurprisingly he seemed ready for such a response, shouting “Wait, I’ve got one!” loud enough that Omega heard him through his headphones as he worked on new music. One eyebrow raised in consternation and I ducked my head, mouthing ‘sorry’ as Earth continued to babble.

“…just heard about them the other night, from a movie I was watching. Are chupacabras real?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t know for certain. I know many ranchers in Arizona believe 'El Chupacabra' exists, but I'm almost positive most people get them confused with really ugly dogs.”

A dismissive noise. “I doubt that, Ellie. They’re huge! And look like apes, sort of. How can anyone think that’s a dog?”

Oh good lord. “Earth, you can’t believe everything Scooby Doo tells you. And before you ask, the Yowie Yahoo is probably not a vampire.”

My mockery didn’t deter his rapid fire questions. In an attempt to shut up him I ended the conversation by promising him something. “Next time I go to HQ, I’ll dig around and see if anyone has ever hunted one, and then I’ll give you all the details.”

Most of my time was spent at what I affectionately now called Ghoulville, or the piece of property the members of Ghost owned consisting of five individual homes and an enormous mansion that was, and I quote, “just for show”. Sadly, real life intruded a few weeks after I’d left Phoenix, forcing my boss James (real name Lucifer, one of the seven princes of Hell) to convert a closet in the main house in to a permanent portal so I could keep up with my Keeper duties as archivist, librarian, and occasional mindbender.

My skill in tampering with the brains of mortals hadn’t been called upon as of late, since I was still slightly fragile after the terror I’d barely survived four months before. Seeing your friends murdered and having half the bones in your body crushed is enough to make a girl rethink her career.

I glanced over at Omega again, my gratitude towards Papa Emeritus and James forever eternal for saving him and his Nameless Ghoul brothers. We didn’t speak about it, though I know he still woke in the dead of the night shaking and sweaty from nightmares he refused to tell me about. Thankfully my nightmares appeared to be a thing of the past.

* * *

HQ was fairly quiet the next time I returned, a few days after I’d spoken with Earth. Alpha was over to the main house for a visit, supposedly so he and Omega could brainstorm, but I knew much of their night would be spent drinking and bullshitting. It was the perfect time to sneak away.

I’d just sent one of our active hunting Keepers, Ari, away with the best methods for dealing with a poltergeist when James came striding through the double doors, dragging a swearing and masked Earth with him by the scruff of his neck.

Pulling him to a standing position next to the counter, James looked between Earth and I before speaking. “I found something that belongs to you.” Normally James would have no problems with the Ghouls visiting me but I knew for a fact he wanted to keep everything that happened between himself, Belial, and Ghost top secret. If anyone was going to blab classified information, it would definitely be Earth.

I tried to keep the situation light-hearted. “Gee, thanks Boss. He chewed through his leash – thought I was gonna have to put up posters to find him.”

Though his face didn’t change, James’ eyes did brighten slightly. Good. It did not bode well for one’s health when facing the wrath of the devil himself.

Earth had no sense of self preservation, as he cursed us both. “Fuck you gu-”. A good hard shake stopped him from saying something he would regret.

“I trust you have a way to get him home?” James said, the smile he was trying to hide creeping in to his voice against his will.

I nodded and he let the small man go, leaving us alone in the empty library. 

“What in the hell are you doing here pestering my boss?” I hissed in exasperation.

A roll of his bright blue eyes let me know how unconcerned he was at potentially pissing off a super-demon. “Lighten up, El. Lucifer’s a pretty chill dude.

“ShhhHHHH! Don’t call him that! He doesn’t want anyone else knowing his real identity.” I grabbed my bag from underneath the counter. “Come on, I’m taking you to Alpha and Omega, so Alpha can take you home with him.”

Though he may not have enhanced abilities anymore, Earth was still extremely agile, a trait he demonstrated for me as he scrambled away from me and up the nearest bookcase. He allowed his legs to dangle over the sides as a taunt while he flipped me the bird.

“Boy, you better get your skinny ass down from there before you hurt yourself or fuck up my shelves.” I was sorely tempted to pelt him with office supplies.

He puffed up his chest and replied, “I’ll come down, but only if you promise to go chupacabra hunting with me."

His request caught me so off guard I could feel my face stretching from raising my eyebrows into my hairline. "You wanna repeat that?" I questioned him.

"I went snooping through your files. Several chupacabra have been reported on a reservation south of Phoenix. I want you to go with me to find one." I hated that he was wearing his mask; I couldn't decipher his expressions or judge his sincerity with it in the way.

I scrubbed my hands over my face in frustration. "I read those files too, you know. I told you I would. Most of them claimed the animals looked like dogs. Traditional chupcabra have scales or spikes, and hop around. Dude, chances are all those people saw were coyotes." 

Earth slid down the shelves and landed at my feet. "Come on, Ellie. It'll be fun to go see. If you don't go then I'll just end up going alone, and who knows what will happen to me."

Little shit. I knew he was right. Though he wasn't acting like it at the moment, he was a grown-ass man and none of his brothers would stop him from wandering around the pitch black desert at 2 o'clock in the morning.

 “Fine. We’ll take my car – I left it at my house. It’s only a short walk away.” I beckoned with a hand for him to follow me.


	2. Boogeyman

Earth spent the first ten minutes of our forty minute journey fiddling with my radio, insulting just about every song he came across under his breath. Finally smacking his hands away from the controls, I switched to the music on my phone and let the old school sounds of Horisont come flowing out of the speakers.

When no protests erupted from his side of the car, I relaxed into my seat and allowed my old Mustang to fly down the remnants of a defunct highway. We traveled in silence for a while, until a streetlight reflected brightly off his mask, prompting me to ask, “So why the mask tonight?”

He rapped it with his knuckles forcefully. “It’ll make an excellent helmet, don’t you think? In case we do run into a chupacabra.”

I risked a quick peek over at him. “That’s a funny answer.” I flicked on my turn signal and smoothly passed a pristine Cadillac the size of a small yacht, the boat cruising along at a sedate thirty-five miles per hour.

Fucking snowbirds.

After returning to the right lane, I continued, “Would you like to tell me the real reason?” Another look to the passenger seat had our eyes meeting for a brief moment.

Slowly, he removed the mask to tumble it around in his hands. “I kind of miss wearing it sometimes. Got used to it. Before, taking it off was considered weird. Now leaving it on outside of shows is weird.”

I had wondered if any of the guys would miss their powers. Alpha appeared rather content with his human status, but he was the only one who openly displayed his emotions over the whole event.

“Do you -,” I paused. “Do you wish you were still a ghoul?”

He didn’t answer right away. Stillness enveloped the inside of the car and as minutes ticked by, I realized I wouldn’t be getting an answer. He confirmed my suspicions by leaning over and turning the volume up on the stereo, effectively blocking conversation.

Luckily, we weren’t too far from our destination. I found a paved turn off on the left side of the highway and pulled the car to a stop at the edge of the asphalt, where it met the dirt of the desert floor. Earth hopped out immediately and survey the area where we landed. “This doesn’t look like a reservation. There aren’t any houses.”

I too exited the car, popping the trunk to rummage around for two flashlights I kept there for emergencies. Tossing Earth one, I replied, “No, we’re not on the reservation. I’ll not be disrespecting Native land on a whim. I think this side is government owned. Besides, the chupacabra probably has a home up in those mountains over there, coming down to the farms to eat when it gets hungry.” I groaned inwardly. I was starting to sound like I believed we were going to find this thing. “To get back home it’ll have to cross these lands. We’ll see it that way.”

I let Earth lead our extra small party, falling in behind him and flashing my light in a steady sweeping pattern across the sagebrush, grubby trees, and the odd cactus. This was prime rattlesnake territory and I had no desire to die tonight. We stumbled along the uneven ground for some time, the quiet only broken by our footsteps and increasingly labored breathing. I was about to suggest we go in another direction (or go home) when my companion pointed at a pinprick of light in the distance.

“Ellie, look! Maybe we can ask the people who live there if they’ve seen anything weird out here.” He darted off at a fast trot, leaving me to speed up my carefully placed steps.

I tried to call out before he was able to go too far. “Earth! Wait! This is Arizona – everyone out here has a goddamn gun!” He was going to get his fool head blown off, and then with a jaunty flick of a wrist Papa was going to blow _my_ head off. The word ‘gun’ took some of the wind out of his sails though, and he slowed so I could catch up.

“You have to stop thinking like your invincible now.” I wheezed out as I neared where he stood.

We were a good fifty feet away from what looked to be a small ranch style house, a battered truck parked on one side and a shed on the other. I didn’t see any livestock but it was entirely possible the owner of the house owned this entire parcel of land, the animals roaming free elsewhere.

I motioned with my flashlight to the empty space off to the right. “We can’t bother random, possible serial killers who live in the middle of nowhere. Let’s just go around.”

I assumed we were far enough away to avoid detection, but we all know what happens when one assumes things. A luminous flash of light blinded us both and too late I discovered the home was equipped with motion detecting flood lights. Whoever installed them must have been trying to contact the Starship _Enterprise_ , their ridiculous brightness so intense it blocked out the outline of the house almost completely.

Reaching out a hand until I hit a solid form, I tugged on Earth’s shoulder to direct him away from the UFO landing zone, desperate to get us out of shooting range.

Unfortunately the deck was stacked against us this night.

Earth began frantically yanking on my arm as our eyesight sluggishly returned and I squinted back into the lights to see what he was worried about. The shed turned out to be an elaborate chicken coop but that’s not what caught the Ghoul’s attention; rather, it was the hunched, gray figure trying to ram its way in to the coop.

A coyote. It had to be.

The creature turned slightly so its silhouette was illuminated, displaying the wickedly sharp looking spines decorating its spine.

I shoved hard at Earth, not caring about dangerous wildlife and plants anymore. He was screeching in my ear but a tinny buzzing noise effectively drowned out his words.

“RUN!” I shouted directly in his face and pushed him again. I had no clue if whatever _that_ was had seen us but I wasn’t willing to wait around and find out. We ran full tilt in a parallel line away from the house, and I swiveled my head frantically around hoping to find someplace sufficient enough to hide.

By some grand design of the gods, a small patch off trees stood near enough I actually believed we might make it. The figures were not terribly tall and I would have thought them Joshua trees had I not known they didn’t grow this far south. It made no difference and I watched Earth catapult himself from the ground straight up to the lowest branches.

I, being far more bottom heavy, clawed at the trunk of the tree in a vain attempt to establish a decent foothold. Not finding anything suitable, I flung myself at the next one and nearly cried in relief when I discovered part of the trunk was split wide enough for me to slide my foot in.

“Remind me,” I huffed violently as I pulled myself up into the relatively safe cocoon of sparse branches, “to start going to the gym.”

Earth did not seem to hear my request, thumbing his nose to fates by hanging out of the tree by one arm to get a better view of the ranch where we first saw the creature. The flood lights had gone out but now twin glows shone at the front and back doors. To my horror, I caught a glimpse of gray flesh as the front door opened and a man appeared in the dim light. Bracing myself between two branches, I screamed as loud as I could muster, “GET BACK INSIDE!”

The man must have seen the creature or was terrified of the disembodied voice hollering at him but either way he hauled ass back to safety, right in the nick of time. The hideous dog-like animal threw itself against the door but didn’t give it a second try, instead turning to book it in the direction where Earth and I crouched in the trees.

I fumbled for my flashlight when the animal left the range of the porchlights and was lost to the darkness, only to realize I must have dropped it in our mad dash. My keys and cell phone were still snugly lodged in my pockets. The thrill from my finding my phone was short lived when I unlocked it and saw I had no signal.

“Earth, check your phone for a signal. I’ve got nothin’.” I tapped out a quick text to Omega, and then another to James.

_Stuck in the desert w/ Earth. Send help._

Hopefully a satellite would shift positions enough to send at least one message through.

“I don’t have my phone. Oops. I-” Whatever he was about to say was lost under the thunderous crunch of splintering wood. Our cryptid buddy chose that instance to treat us to an impressive showing of his favorite ability and barreled headfirst into the tree holding Earth. He yelped in surprise but had the wherewithal to flip on the flashlight he’d managed to hang on to, shining it down on our attackers head.

The creature was at least four feet long, and I judged it to be around three or four feet tall. It sure as hell didn’t hop and it could definitely pass for a monstrous version of a flat-headed dog but I’d never heard of a dog that fast or powerful. Its skin was made up of scales, just like the chupacabra description, and razor sharp claws tore through the dirt beneath its misshapen paws with ease. In short, whatever the hell it was was mighty pissed we interrupted its dinner.

Clinging to a branch as the animal continued its battering ram impression, Earth smacked his free hand against another branch. “To answer your earlier question, Ellie, I absolutely wish I were still a Ghoul.”

The night wore on and still the creature did not stop. It took to alternating between our two trees, bashing itself endlessly into the trunks. Mine gave way more than Earth’s because of the preexisting crack in the wood but it only needed to survive the night. I figured the animal would go at dawn. We sat and watched the creature’s antics until the flashlight batteries ran dry, leaving Earth to drop the heavy metal tube on its flat head in a sad attempt at revenge.

Fear transformed to annoyance, and the growling, spitting noises coming from below were soon easily drowned out. A silly game of I Spy became a competiton to guess which star in the sky the other was looking at. 

Fatigue set in and though sleeping in such an uncomfortable position was impossible, I found myself dozing on and off until the sun began its ascent in to the sky. All was eerily quiet and I chanced leaning out of the tree to see our chupacabra scurrying away to the mountains. Waiting until it was a mere speck in the distance, I half climbed, half fell down off my perch and slapped the foot Earth had so carelessly let hang loose during his slumber. He grumbled as he jumped down next to me, one of his arms slinging itself around my waist and one of mine coming to rest on his slight shoulders as we made the trek back to the car.

Pulling on to the highway, my nearly dead phone connected to the stereo and started up the music player where it had left off. I didn’t pay much attention the song, trying to focus on getting us home without falling asleep at the wheel, but one passage had both of us glancing at each other.

_El chupacabra_

_El chupacabra_

_El chupacabra_

_Will not eat you_

Before I could shut the volume off Earth had rolled down his window, plucked my phone from the cup holder, and unceremoniously chucked it out into the dirt. I kept driving.

 


End file.
